f1.2

If you trawl the internet looking for information about Fujifilm X series cameras, particularly the X-Pro or X-T1, you will find dozens if not hundreds of articles from professional and amateur photographers explaining to their readers why they have ‘switched to Fuji’, some even have the highly coveted and frankly mysterious ‘Official Fujifilm X Series Photographer’ title. How did they get that? I often wonder, did they ask for it, were they invited? Whatever. Fujifilm obviously has a great marketing tool in them and good on them, it works and to be quite honest the hype and ‘froth’ they help create is for the most part genuine, so far as I can see. Nothing wrong in any of that.

Much more relevant to the vast majority of photographers is the stuff written by other amateurs or professionals who don’t hold any title given to them from on high, in my opinion. The reason being is these people who take the time (their own time) to write articles about their favourite camera brand are not being paid. These are people who have a genuine interest in telling others all about how wonderful that camera body or lens is, in their opinion. There isn’t anything in it for them, they won’t ever get a penny for explaining to others why they love their camera or why they switched brands. This makes what they say important, I’d argue more important, than what the rock and roll stars on Youtube say.

So, with all that said, I decided to write my own little article about my Fujifilm X ‘switch’. It all started for me when the little X10 came out. I bought one very early on, and instantly fell in love with it. At the time I wanted a small compact style camera I could keep with me most of the time for my own personal enjoyment. It didn’t quite work out that way as it turned out, I hardly use it if I am completely honest but that isn’t the fault of the camera. I just don’t find myself in situations where I have it with me at the ready all that often. Anyway, the point is I had now been drawn towards the brand, it was my first taste of that special something Fuji put into their cameras.

Fast forward a little, and I’m shooting portraiture and weddings, and I’m using Canon 1D series cameras. If you’ve ever seen one of these things, you will know just how big they are. They are the Sherman Tank of the camera world, and their Nikon equivalents are much the same. You can hammer nails in with them and they won’t stop working. Their toughness is legendary, you get the picture. I am also using ‘L’ series lenses, which are also large and heavily built. These are supposed to be the professional industry standard, and they are good, no doubt about that. But heavy. And big. My wedding kit, that’s two camera bodies, a 70-200 f2.8, a 24-70 f2.8 and a 50mm f1.4, spare batteries etc etc in a Thinktank Streetwalker HD weighed more than my six year old daughter!

Whenever I use artificial lighting for portraiture, even in the studio, I have always preferred to use Speedlites over ‘big lights’, they are convenient, flexible (you can’t hang a 600 ws flash head upside down on a clip from the ceiling) and light. Coupled with a decent radio trigger system they allow great creativity yet don’t take up huge amounts of room and are not cumbersome so if I’m lugging kilograms worth of camera kit around on trolleys and loading the car boot up with gear to go on location, it’s a distinct advantage to be able to fling a small bag in there and be done (in terms of lighting). Are you getting where this is going yet?

Not long after it came out I also bought myself a Fujifilm X-E1, together with the ‘kit lens’. I’ve used this, again, purely as a personal use camera. I was sold completely on its looks and how it beautifully blended that old camera feel and usability with fantastic digital convenience and modernity. However I never really looked at it as something I could use on a job. It wasn’t the image quality or that I felt it lacked anything. A lot of reviews said at the time it came out how it was slow to focus and the electronic viewfinder was slow and ‘laggy’. I’ve never ever felt these things would bite me on a professional shoot but yet somehow I never thought to use it in a portrait session, all the same. It was, in my mind, purely for me to take with me on trips or photowalks, a good street camera but nothing more.

More recently, I had begun to notice I wasn’t taking any camera out with me very often. My Canon gear was way too heavy and cumbersome and it often felt a chore to have one of them hanging around my neck. However I did find it quite liberating recently to go out with just a Canon 5Dmk2 and my 50mm f1.4 on a shoulder sling, and nothing else. In fact it was lovely and I shot more photographs that way that I liked than I ever did when I was out with a full kit. I began to wonder if this was the way to go in terms of professional shoots too. I already used small compact speedlites instead of big heavy mains lights for my lit work, why not have the same approach to my camera and lenses? Something smaller and lighter but with amazing image quality would fit right in.

This brings me back to all those ‘Official X Shooter’ videos and reviews. I began to look at more and more of them, and in particular I was more and more interested in the X-T1. Probably one of the most persuasive videos I saw was this one. In fact it was quite an eye opener, as I’d never in a million years thought about using one of these cameras in this way before. I just had to get myself one of these cameras! So, I put my Canon up for sale, and ordered an X-T1. I found myself a couple more lenses on Ebay, a 35mm f1.4 and a 56 f1.2. Both these lenses together cost a lot less than one of my ‘L’ lenses (they would have done brand new never mind second hand!) I want to get myself a few more lenses but for now I’m happy with what I have. I’d like a wider prime, something I can use in environmental portraiture, street photography and at weddings. I can still use my kit lens at its widest 18mm for now though, for the price they go for it’s a simply stunningly fantastic lens.

The photograph at top is one of the first images I took with the X-T1 and 56mm lens. It was shot wide open and at ISO 800, I shot it in RAW and edited in Photoshop CS6. All I have done is add a very light (10% opacity) colourised radial gradient set to ‘colour’, just to enhance the already beautifully soft light coming through the window. It took me a couple of minutes to edit and it’s already one of my favourite recent images of my little girl.

I’ve briefly mentioned before how Fujifilm X series cameras have something hard to pin down that just makes them special, and I’m afraid I still can’t put my finger on it for you, but it is there. If you are looking to buy into the Fujifilm X series, I can’t recommend it enough, you will not be disappointed. Apart from the obvious weight/convenience/size differences, they also have something I feel is lacking in the ‘other’ manufacturers offerings. I can’t comment on other mirrorless systems as I haven’t used them but I have used lots of Dslrs and all of them, even the 1D’s or 5D’s, lack the soul that you get from a Fujifilm X camera. They’re just tools. They lack a feel and special quality, it is strange as both the ‘big guns’ used to have this back in the good old film days, but in the advent of digital they seem to have lost it. Fujifilm X cameras have it in spades. In my humble opinion anyway.